The opening keynote at Startup Camp Berlin was delivered by Christian Weiss of Project A Ventures. Sandy Hathaway was there for Silicon Allee.
According to Chris, there are two camps of startup thought in Berlin, divided into the group of original concept innovators and the so-hyped “evil” copycats. His feeling is that the war between these two factions is more or less a public relations strategy, but that the copycats are not evil and the way they are portrayed is not reflective of the real value.
That’s because taking a core idea is only the first step – what happens next is a tremendous amount of innovation focused on improving the model of the system being copied. The real focus should not be on the assumption that original=good and copy=bad, but rather on what is sustainable, scalable, fast, and brings true value to its customers.
He envisions a next generation of entrepreneurs who will be able to transcend the boundaries of these Berlin street gangs and find a happy harmony that leverages the beneficial effects that both models have to offer. The Berlin startup of tomorrow, the one that will make Berlin an indisputable technology development leader in the world, is one that combines the innovation and creativity of the original thinkers and aligns them with the accelerated execution power and business prowess of the copycats.